The Weightage of the word ‘Depression’

‘Depression’ the word itself has such a heavy weight that after hearing it, we tend to worry. Have we ever wondered what the real meaning of depression is? If you search it up some where you will get it as “ feelings of severe despondency and dejection”. In the current world we tend to so loosely use this word for the smallest of instances. Depression is a mental illness that affects your mind, body and the way you function. You tend to isolate yourself because you think everything is going wrong and you’re not in the clear state of mind to take decisions. Our current generation has a great inclination to use the word ‘depressed’ because that’s the way you describe any form of sadness nowadays even the minutest form. Because of the excess use of this word we can’t differentiate from the people who actually need help and the people who are doing it for the attention they will get just to make them feel better. Wanting attention is no crime, we all want to be loved and wanted, it’s one thing that keeps us going, it’s what motivates us and helps us pass the deep waters. The way to attain this attention is the wrong path. Everyone goes through a downfall, everyone has had their times where you need a push and you need a reason to be alive. Just to feel alive again using the word ‘depressed’ does not justify the fact that you not only put yourself in a stage of worry and stress but all the people around you. Yes there are ways of getting yourself back on track if something goes wrong, yes there are ways to improve on your mistakes if you made an impulsive decision. There are several ways of making yourself feel better than throwing the line ‘I am depressed’. This does not say that there isn’t a possibility that you might be going through a phase of depression, it only means depression is a strong word just like we keep saying ‘hate’ is a strong word. There are several people in this world that lose track of their lives and face depression but the difference about actually being depressed and using the word depressed for a form of sadness that might have occurred because of something going wrong is that when you are ‘depressed’ you can’t do anything right, there are several symptoms like, not being able to sleep or sleeping too much, trouble concentrating, restlessness, losing your appetite, suicidal thoughts, pessimism and hopelessness and mostly losing control of what you’re doing, where as if you feel you’re going through a hard time or something has affected you greatly but you know you will bounce back that’s not the situation to use the word ‘depressed’. People who actually need help don’t actually get the right amount of help because of the immense usage of this word and not being able to differentiate if a person actually needs to be loved or needs a doctors advice. A national mental health survey states that one in 20 Indians suffer from depression, it also plays a role in more than half of all suicidal attempts. There are several people who do not know how much weightage the word ‘depression’ carries around and thus use it for the wrong reasons, making it harder for the people to understand what they a person is actually going through. Our society does not promote psychiatrists and often it is said that people who visit a psychiatrist or a psychologist are ‘mad’. This is the main reason people hold back and don’t get the help they need , ‘help’ which is completely normal and the best form of working towards making yourself feel better. It is not a taboo to be visiting a doctor to talk about your mental health, in fact it is helping you to get stronger. What we should be doing is normalising people visiting doctors for mental health because if you mentally cannot function it breaks you apart. We should be reducing the usage of the word ‘depressed’ if we don’t know the effects of this word and not using the word as a synonym for ‘sad’, And most importantly we should be trying to make a change to understand one another and to help each and every individual be mentally strong. This is a small message for the people who read this to realise the weightage of the word ‘depressed’ and understand how we should not loosely use this word for a basic reason to help the people we know at least if they need help and understand them more clearly. It’s the least we can do to help people get mentally stronger. ‘Being mentally strong is way more important than being physically strong, outer appearances does not define how well you can handle a tough situation, how well you can grow through a hard time and most importantly go on with life, it’s the positivity, the mental strength that keeps you going.’